Monica Geller
Monica Elizabeth Geller is a fictional character television sitcom Friends (1994–2004), portrayed by Courteney Cox. Monica is known as the "Mother Hen" of the group and her Greenwich Village apartment was one of the group's main gathering places. She was also known for her obsessive personality and competitive nature. Background Monica (b. March 1969) is the younger sister of Ross Geller, was best friends with Rachel Green in high school, was roommates with Phoebe Buffay-Hannigan, During the series, a few episodes contained flashbacks which revealed that Monica had been obese, weighing 255 pounds in high school. Monica met Ross's friend, Chandler, when he and Ross were in college. After hearing Chandler call her fat, Monica lost weight and, in a flashback episode, tried to get revenge by seducing him but accidentally cut off his toe. It was Chandler's suggestion that she become a chef. Monica and Chandler got together in London during the Season 4 finale and married in the Season 7 finale. They adopted two children, twins named Jack and Erica, in the series finale. Monica initially shared her New York City apartment with Phoebe, who had moved out prior to the pilot episode over worries that their friendship would suffer due to Monica's obsessive tidiness. In the pilot episode, Rachel left her fiancé, Barry Farber, at the altar and moved in with Monica.[1] Monica met Joey Tribbiani when he moved in with Chandler, who lived across the hall from Monica. It is revealed that upon first meeting, Monica had a crush on Joey.[2] Her catchphrase is a loud, excited and exaggerated "I KNOW!". http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Monica_Geller&action=edit&section=2 edit Geller family Monica and Ross are usually quite affectionate, although there is a lot of sibling rivalry. In many episodes, Ross and Monica used an odd childhood gesture - knocking their fists together with their thumbs pointing outward (as an alternative to "the finger"). Monica and Ross are particularly competitive around their parents, and Monica feels her parents favor Ross. Monica is Jewish. In "The One with the Holiday Armadillo," Ross introduces Ben to Hanukkah and talks about getting Monica a Hanukkah present several times. Monica also mentions her Bat Mitzvah. Chandler also reminds her of this when Erica, the twins' birth mother, mistakenly thinks she's a reverend. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Monica_Geller&action=edit&section=3 edit Relationship In season 3, episode 25 (The One at the Beach), Chandler and Monica are at the beach when Monica says that even if Chandler was the last guy on earth, she would still be unsure about dating him.[3] In a later episode, Monica laughs when Chandler offers to be her boyfriend after she mentions she is worried about dying as an old maid.[4] "You're not gonna die an old maid...Maybe a spinster cook". At the end of season 4, Monica began a secret relationship with Chandler in London, at Ross's wedding to Emily Waltham-Geller. As their relationship deepened, Monica tried keeping it secret but their friends found out. Chandler moved in with Monica in season 6 and they got engaged in the season 7 finale. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Monica_Geller&action=edit&section=4 edit] Physical appearance Monica is an attractive woman with silky dark brown hair, sculpted cheekbones, blue eyes and a distinct hourglass figure. Her beauty is acknowledged not only by who flirted with her a lot before they eventually got together, but by Joey, who called her "hot" on more than one occasion and confessed to having rather suggestive dreams about her. She is often described as "freakishly strong." However, Monica used to be extremely obese during her childhood and her teenage years, but went on a strict diet after hearing cruel remarks about her weight one Thanksgiving. Because of her past obesity, Monica tends to be more careful with men than Phoebe, and Chandler and Rachel tend to use it to their advantage when mocking her. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Monica_Geller&action=edit&section=5 edit Personality http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Monica_Geller&action=edit&section=6 edit Cleanliness "Neat Freak" Monica is comically obsessive about her apartment and loves cleaning (describing the dry cleaner as her Disneyland). This personality trait becomes exaggerated as the series progresses. Examples include: *She categorizes towels into 11 sections, examples being "everyday use," "fancy," "guest," and "fancy guest."[7] *In Season 5, she and Phoebe co-ordinate Rachel's surprise birthday party, and Monica takes charge of everything except cups and ice, for which she gives Phoebe responsibility. In reaction to this, Phoebe surprises Monica by bringing hundreds of plastic cups (which she even decorates with) and various types of ice, including crushed, cubed, and dry. *While Monica and Phoebe are living together, Monica once apologizes to Phoebe for leaving lipstick on the phone. When Phoebe tells her that she didn't, Monica sarcastically replies "Oh, well, then it must have been you!"[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Monica_Geller&action=edit&section=9 edit Relationships and children Monica is repeatedly depicted as wanting to be in a relationship and have children. Before and after her relationship with Richard, she worries about not having a boyfriend. Early in the series, Monica broke up with Richard because he did not want children. After Richard, Monica seriously considers becoming a single mother through artificial insemination. Interestingly before she and began dating, the two talked about getting together and having a baby if both were single at the age of 40. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Monica_Geller&action=edit&section=10 edit "Fat Monica" It is revealed early in the series that she had been overweight while growing up. Monica lost the weight when she was 18 after she overheard Chandler call her "fat" at Thanksgiving. fat moanica is funny hehehe The writers of the series often used flashbacks to show the overweight Monica (with Courteney Cox Arquette wearing a fat suit). In one episode, called "The One With the Prom Video", when the group watched an old prom video and were surprised to see her weight, Joey yelled "Some girl ate Monica!". This was also the first episode where we saw "big-nosed Rachel." Monica tried to stick up for herself, claiming the camera adds five pounds. Chandler was quick to retort, "So how many cameras are actually on you?" In another episode where the group remember past Thanksgivings, one flashback reveals why Monica lost all the weight. She heard Chandler tell Ross he didn't want to be stuck in all night with his fat sister, prompting Monica to break down and refuse the food offered to her by her mother. She lost the weight by Thanksgiving of 1988, Rachel also lost the big nose. In almost every episode that features "Fat Monica", the episode ends with Monica dancing in a funny manner. In an alternate reality storyline during the show ("The One That Could Have Been"), Monica was overweight but was still a professional, who was a freelance writer, at the end of the episode, having just lost her virginity to him as a favor he offered her. During the episode when her current boyfriend, a doctor, asks her to save him some of the dinner after he is paged, she replies "I can't promise anything," as she starts to eat. As revealed in another episode, Monica's weight meant a junior high school member had to play with her on the see-saw rather than someone her own age, and her marching band outfit had to be custom made. Her fatness also explains Ross's hastened eating when he explains to Rachel "I grew up with Monica! If you didn't eat fast, you didn't eat!" In "The One With the Pediatrician", Monica reveals that Ross had a therapist due to a recurring bad dream, which was that Monica was going to eat him. Monica's weight is reported in another episode to have been the reason for their dog's knee surgery, after she tried to ride him as an eleven year old, and in a different episode Ross reveals that she caused their parents' porch swing to break; it had been previously thought that a hurricane had broken it. In the same episode Ross also reveals that after being sent to bed without dinner one night, Monica tried to eat the macaroni glued to her jewelry box. Another episode reveals that Monica attended fat camp as a child, and was found caught in the barbed wire after trying to catch and eat a squirrel, which she claimed she had been trying to help out. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Monica_Geller&action=edit&section=11 edit Career Monica is a chef, and, as with most areas of her life, she is obsessive and competitive. Monica uses Chantal cookware in blue. Originally, she was a poorly paid chef at a restaurant called Iridium. After accepting a promotion at a restaurant called Café des Artistes, she was fired for accepting a gift from a food distributor. Monica remained unemployed for a while before getting offered a job as a waitress at a 1950s-themed restaurant called the Moondance Diner. At this time, Monica reveals that she worked at the famous Cafe des Artistes when she said "I was a sous-chef at Cafe des Artistes. How can I take a job where I have to make something called Laverne and Curly fries?" At the Moondance Diner, Monica wears a blond wig, roller skates and massive fake breasts. While working at the diner, she met millionaire Pete Becker (played by Jon Favreau), who used his money to open a restaurant and appoint Monica as head chef. After the relationship failed due to the consequences of Pete's desire to become the "UFC Champion", Monica began a short-lived catering business with Phoebe. Also during her unemployed days, Monica worked for an unnamed food company, thinking up recipes and then making them, using substitute food products, such as 'Mocolate', a chocolate substitute which never took off due to its repulsive taste (Phoebe said "this must be what evil tastes like") and side effect of causing urination to become painful if a large amount was eaten. Also during this time, to avoid taking a job in the aforementioned Moondance Diner, she temporarily bought shares in the stock market using the few savings left in her bank account ($127), despite not knowing anything about how it works, buying shares from companies only because of their names, not knowing what the companies did or how successful they were. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Monica_Geller&action=edit&section=12 edit Production When landed on the cast of Friends, she was asked to play the role of Rachel Green-Bing but she thought she should take the role of Monica Geller instead. Maggie Wheeler also auditioned for the part but ended up playing recurring character Janice Litman Goralnik (née Hosenstein) instead. Actress Jami Gertz was offered and declined the role of Monica before Friends went into production. Monica once stated she was allergic to cat hair, but in another episode mentions she once owned a cat. Also in the episode, "The One with the Cat", she is able to pet and be around Phoebe's cat with no apparent allergic reaction. Monica utters the first line in the show: "There's nothing to tell, he's just some guy I work with." Monica's last line is answering Rachel's offer to have coffee before they leave: "We got some time". Rachel Karen Green-Bing (Nee Green) Category:Characters Category:Monica apartment Category:Jack Geller